Destiny in Cinders

Evenstar Ivory Divine Seal’s full power was being channeled through his body as Evenstar lethal qi, causing Ocean Domination, all the weapons of the killed martialists in the city’s rubble, those abandoned by the ones who had fled, those left in the armory and even silver and copper coins to resonate!

What in the world?! Mo Li watched as countless pieces of silver and copper were rapidly pulled toward An Jing’s hands by a powerful magnetic force. As they flew over, those weapons disintegrated and melded together, forming countless fine shards which were then restabilized by Evenstar lethal qi into solid form. Then, a long clanging of metal resounded as the blade of Ocean Domination at the very center achieved a length of three zhang, forming a constantly wavering dragonslaying blade that appeared to radiate a tidal energy. But upon closer inspection, it was actually incredibly sharp strands of metal qi. Moving together, they formed a shredder that threatened to tear everything to tiny little pieces.

”Aaagh!” Mo Li’s hairs rose as he took in more power from the formation discs into his body, causing dragon horns to form on his head and scales to appear all over his limbs and face. Despite his powerful transformation, he was just a Fortification martialist at the end of the day and could barely calm down at the sight of the massive blade. With a subconscious growl, he leaped into the air and fashioned a lance of frost, spinning it rapidly to form a powerful wall that blocked An Jing’s fearsome strike.

Powerful winds raged at the center of the city as metal struck metal again and again. Ocean Domination and the frost lance powered by the formation discs clashed nonstop, unleashing powerful jets of frost qi and sharp flashes of the blade onto the nearby streets. An Jing and Mo Li had exchanged many bouts within the time it took to snap a finger, creating qi shockwaves that blew away all the dust and snow from their surroundings, scattering even the snowclouds high above.

While Mo Li had the absolute advantage when it came to raw power and could push An Jing back quite a bit, he still felt quite threatened by the acute slashes of the giant blade. The longer the fight went on, the more danger he felt. Using brute force to deflect An Jing’s attacks slowly became less and less effective, forcing him to compensate with even more force than before. Little did he know that An Jing was completely using him like a practice dummy. The feeling of an enemy that closed the gap step-by-step drove the young master to howl in desperation. ”Why would a revered divine-arc bearer bully normal martialists like us?!”

”What kind of nonsense is that?!” An Jing’s calm expression was completely replaced by one of incredulous rage. ”If I didn’t have a divine arc, I’d be the one being bullied! What else would I use my divine arc for if not to bully bullies like you?!”

He no longer bothered to respond to Mo Li. The sword qi at the edge of his massive blade began to spin like a chainsaw, heating up the frosty air in the surroundings till they boiled as the blade went slashing toward the dragonmorph. The lance parried the blade, but it sapped even more energy and effort than before.

An Jing continued to hone his mastery over his two lifearc abilities by borrowing the power of Mo Li, or rather, that of his two formation discs. While he wasn’t able to break through Mo Li’s defense, it was just the thing he needed to learn how to apply more and more force to his attacks.

Though, if he were honest, this was beginning to wear An Jing out. Though he cultivated on both the immortal and martial paths and had lots of spirit qi, his abilities and techniques gorged upon it ravenously. There was no need to tire himself out so much against Mo Li alone.

At that moment, the two formation discs behind Mo Li trembled and dimmed somewhat right as profound yin qi gathered in a different corner of the city to suppress the yang-aspect node. This stumped the flow of the major terrestrial-vein formation of Riverside greatly, directly affecting the output of the formation discs.

”Heh.” Seeing Mo Li’s panicked expression, An Jing knew that the stage was set. Once Bai Qinghan destroyed more than three terrestrial-vein nodes, Mo Li would lose his boost and go back to being a normal Fortification martialist. An Jing would be able to slay him as easily as he slew chicken. The only question was how far he would go to overkill him.

I have to run! Mo Li was no fool either. When he heard An Jing yell earlier, he knew that he wasn’t working alone. If he couldn’t defeat An Jing, he would end up having his power gradually worn away until he was beaten to death. He had no choice but to risk it and unleash far more power than he was comfortable with. The only way to defeat An Jing while he still had a brute-force advantage was to go all out, no matter the price! Yet, he was going up against someone who had supposedly killed three adepts, so the risk simply wasn’t worth it!

Losing all his will to fight, Mo Li turned tail and ran. An Jing’s powerful slash struck nothing but the air and ground. Then, he watched in shock as Mo Li dashed away before hurriedly giving chase.

The two of them jumped from one building to the next, leaving trails of light in the city wherever they passed. An Jing wasn’t able to catch up at first, but then he felt a massive burst of wood qi right as the second terrestrial-vein node was suppressed. Xu Tai had considered his options and decided to help An Jing out after all.

Losing even more speed, Mo Li was eventually caught up to by An Jing. But right as An Jing was about to leap to the next building, the divine capital’s young scion suddenly turned back with frenzy in his eyes. ”You fell for it!”

Without warning, the formation discs glowed brightly. Powerful terrestrial-vein qi surged from the building below and surrounded An Jing completely; they had arrived at another terrestrial-vein node. Mo Li had stimulated the node and forced the powerful metal-yang power within to come pouring out.

Coupled with his formation discs, the burst of qi sent the massive blade in An Jing’s hand flying. The blade spun in the air as it was sucked away by the formation discs. Had he not let go of it, he would’ve been dragged with the blade into the range of the green and gold formation discs, which spun rapidly and ground away at the massive blade. The power from the terrestrial veins managed to suppress both An Jing’s abilities.

”Hahaha, do you really think I’m afraid of you?!” Mo Li let out a wild laughter after sealing off An Jing’s weapon and abilities. He glared so hard at him that his dragon eyes were completely bloodshot, the blue flames within them flaring up. ”Let’s see how you’re able to fight me without your weapon or your abilities!”

”Are you retarded?” An Jing looked at the young master as he would a daft fool. ”That massive mystic-metal dragonslaying blade is fifteen thousand jin in weight.”

Though he lost Ocean Domination and was unable to use his abilities, An Jing wasn’t panicking in the slightest. Instead, he gripped his fists tightly and said, ”You do know that swinging a blade that heavy around means that I’m able to lift far more than fifteen thousand jin of force, right?”

The platinum light around his body suddenly turned blood red. Patterns resembling blood vessels manifested around the parts of his skin that were exposed. His long haired danced wildly from the fluctuations of the terrifying crimson lethal qi around him. It looked as if he was emitting raw lifeforce.

Raising his fists and covered in flaming energy, he said in a tone of confusion and bewilderment, ”So, how did you think I was able to swing around a massive blade that weighs so much?”

And do you think you can even dream of going up against me without your formation discs’ protection? He didn’t want to waste any more words and merely stepped ahead with his fists raised. The ground cracked and shattered with every step he took as he accelerated into a blurry mirage of blood lethal qi.

The two formation discs were occupied trying to suppress An Jing’s abilities and blade, so they weren’t able to channel as much power as they usually could. With three terrestrial-vein nodes destroyed, they were no longer able to shield Mo Li and could only boost his Fortification Realm power slightly.

”Damn it!” Mo Li finally realized it and his expression changed immediately. But before he could even turn to run, he felt a sudden pain in his neck. Then, he watched his headless body run ahead a hundred zhang, spurting out blue-purple true-spirit blood before finally tumbling to the ground and twitching nonstop.

Did he really kill me in one strike without using any external item? Grandpa... Grandpa, save me! His consciousness gradually faded into darkness.

An Jing gripped Mo Li’s head and spine in his hand. Blood continued to trickle off it as he raised it up and looked directly into the eyes that still burned with blue flames. ”Is there anything you want to say, Dragon General? I am the one who slayed your grandson. My name has always been, is and ever will be the same. I am An Jing, bearer of a divine arc.”